Tell-tale lipstick marks found at scene.

This is not so very surprising. With McCain’s poll numbers slipping badly, the campaign was bound to go nasty and personal. And realistically, the allegations about Bill Ayers are only the beginning. We can expect resurgences of Rev. Wright, refreshed secret Muslim emails, and messages with thinly veiled racial undertones to be trotted out.

My only hope is that the American people are above this. For now, Obama’s campaign can continue to take the high road and refuse to respond in kind. But if poll numbers start to slide back toward the GOP, I suspect we’ll see Obama forced to trot out the Keating 5, McCain’s gambling binges, Cindy’s drug habit, and other uglies from his past. Or maybe the Dems will need to focus more on tearing Palin down as the race is increasingngly Obama vs. Palin, leaving McCain as little more than a footnote.

McCain said months ago that he was above this sort of politics. Palin has made no such claim. Quite the opposite, she prides herself as being the attack dog. She may wish us to believe she’s doing this for us, acting as a harbinger of truth (bless her heart), but her real message to us is best conveyed pictorially by her daughter Piper.